Hey Google, stop trying to redefine privacy

May 11, 2019

The CEO also makes it all sound like Google has been protecting the user’s privacy all this time, seemingly pretending that all those privacy offenses it had to deal with in recent years never happened.
From the get-go, Pichai makes it sound like Apple is turning privacy into a luxury good — Apple’s name isn’t used, but it’s abundantly clear what he meant when he said that Privacy Should Not Be a Luxury Good.



Nobody said that privacy should be a luxury good, and it’s absolutely fine that Google is doing more to improve user privacy. The only reason Pichai can make that argument is because previous versions of Google products didn’t offer the cheap privacy he envisions to everyone, which is what Pichai’s Google wants to do now.



Comparatively, privacy and security have been core Apple product features for a few years now. Before that, Apple never dealt in user data. The only reason you would say Apple’s privacy is expensive is because you had no alternative from Google. Just last year, it was discovered that Google logged location data without explicit user permission, which is probably the number one reason why location privacy is now a priority for Google.Hey Google, stop trying to redefine privacy

The two reasons Google is offering this cheaper Pixel is:

  1. At the previous price point (~$1000) they did not manage to produce/sell any significant volume.
  2. More users = more data. Not necessarily to sell but surely to use.



    Anyone who thinks this is for any other reason is not thinking straight.